Smunday
Smunday is the fifteenth episode of Season 1 of Malcolm in the Middle and the fifteenth episode overall of the show. Plot Lois is sick and thinks it's still Sunday and tells the boys that their punishment is not over yet, so the boys decide to stay home from school but then they realize there is nothing to do. Hal goes to a car dealership to try and buy a red Porsche which he can't decide to buy or not. He later realizes he had caught Lois' flu. Francis calls home to inform the boys about a letter to Southern Alabama involving him destroying their pool during his prank to Marlin Academy and needs them to hide the letter. However when they learn that he was the reason they were grounded in the first place, they refuse to hide it. So Francis decides to bring his lowlife pals over to get the letter by force. Malcolm thinks fast and makes a fake letter for them to take. He leaves the real one with Dewey who, to his horror, hides it under Lois' pillow, causing her to read it. Although now realizing it's Monday, Lois is caught up with both her flu and Francis' prank to the academy that she ignores punishing the boys for skipping school. With Lois ready to send Francis to an Arizona Work Farm for troubled teens, the boys try to come up with a prank that would make Lois turn her attention back to them. Summary Malcolm, Reese and Dewey are excited that it's Monday for a reason. It was the end of their two month long grounding (complete with no TV) for selling Dewey's bike to Francis' dead beat vandal friends, Richie, Justin and Circus, as Lois somehow knew the boys were lying when they claimed it was stolen. Hal tells the boys that once he gets home he will rewire and plug the TV back in, warning them to behave between now and then and suggests before they leave for school, they walk into the bedroom and tell Lois to feel better because she's been sick for the last few days. After he leaves they attempt to tell her, but she thinks it's still Sunday and warns them not to leave the house because they're still grounded. Happy to miss school for the day the boys stay home however they soon realize they've made a mistake, since they can't watch TV or leave the house lest they get reported for truancy and they'll just end up in trouble again anyway once Hal gets home. On his way to work, Hal gets distracted by a Porsche dealership. He walks in just to look at the car, and gets pounced upon by a salesman who convinces him to look at a brochure. Then the salesman convinces Hal to take the car for a test-drive. He introduces him to the financing guy and the trade-in guy. Finally, he gets Hal to initial a price and works up a whole contract and payment plan. At the house, Francis calls home and tells the boys that he's worried that Lois will find out about a letter from the University of Southern Alabama involving a bill that details the extensive damages he's done to it's swimming pool by driving a backhoe in it during his prank to Marlin Academy. The boys agree to hide the letter for a while and he does them a favor by telling them about an arcade where the owner doesn't bust truants. Francis also mentions that there's money in the one of the drawers and Lois won't know as long as they take between five and seven dollars. The boys attempt to raid the drawers but a sick Lois catches them and mentions that she hid it in the back of the closet. She also admits that she has been aware about them raiding her drawers too many times. The boys realize that, in her delusional state, Lois is truthfully answering any question she is asked. Forgetting about the arcade they decide to get some answers. After several questions (which include Reese finding out, to his dismay, that he wasn't adopted), Malcolm asks Lois how she knew about Dewey's bike not really being stolen. She finally tells them that Francis told her everything and it was how she knew the boys were lying. At the Porsche Dealership, the salesman tries to convince Hal to sign on the dotted line, but by this time Hal is freaking out and also not feeling very well. Hal fears he's come down with Lois's flu and breaks for the door, but the salesman cuts him off and convinces him to stick his head in the Porsche one more time and smell the leather and look at the console. Hal stick his head in the Porsche and throws up in it. The salesman has to drive a very ill Hal home. At the house, Reese is outraged by Francis and wants to give the letter to Lois so she can bust him for what he's done. Malcolm isn't so sure and wants to get his side of the story first. Sure enough Francis calls again and it's confirmed that he did tell on them to Lois that got them grounded. Malcolm is furious and tells him that he will give Lois the letter in retaliation to what he did to them. Soon after the boys discuss it among themselves whether or not to give Lois the letter and later decide not to, but pretend they are to scare him. Once again Francis calls home, but he has an ace up his sleeve as he has sent Richie, Justin and Circus around to retrieve the letter. Malcolm hides it in the VCR and tells Reese. Francis tells Richie to watch Reese's eyes, and of course Reese entirely gives away where the letter is hidden. Francis's friends ride off on their bikes triumphant with the letter. Then Malcolm tells Reese that that was a fake letter, and he knew Francis wouldn't give up until his friends had the letter, and that Reese would give it away, so he told Reese where the fake letter was and actually gave the real letter to Dewey, which is the last thing anyone would expect. Dewey proudly announces that he hid it under Lois' pillow. Malcolm freaks out as she is now awake and is reading the letter. Lois immediately realizes it's Monday and yells at the boys to come in to the master bedroom at once. Although she knows the boys skipped school, Lois doesn't care about this as her rage is now targeted entirely at Francis. Reese tries to distract her by thinking it's a dream, but she doesn't buy it and tells him to shut up. Worried over Lois' health, Malcolm wisely tries to remind her to rest up because she's sick and just being angry at Francis will just make it worse. She tells him off that she's too angry to be sick and mentions that Francis really has outdone himself this time. Lois immediately plans to send him to a work farm for troubled teens in Arizona that'll make Marlin Academy look like a walk in the park, horrifying the boys who feel intense guilt over getting Francis in so much trouble. She then heads to the bathroom to throw up. In the boys' bedroom, Malcolm calls Francis to apologize about what happened and that he, Reese and Dewey had no intentions of showing the letter to Lois and it was accidental. He understands and tells them that he's sorry for ratting them out. Lois was pressuring him to tell her the truth about them selling Dewey's bike to his lowlife pals with the threat that if he didn't he wouldn't get to come home for the summer. Malcolm, Reese and Dewey are feeling even worse than before. The three try to think of a way to save Francis's hide. Malcolm decides if they get into a whole lot of trouble, Lois will be so busy being mad at them that she won't remember to be mad at Francis. They take all their parents' prized possessions up onto the roof of the house and put them in a wheeled cart. They roll the cart off the roof into the driveway... just as the salesman is pulling up to the house in the Porsche with their very sick father. Mission accomplished. It's night time, and the boys are still up on the roof. Lois, now having completely forgotten about Francis, is standing outside in her bathrobe drinking a cup of tea and telling them to come down and face their punishment. They say they'll come down when she tells them what she's going to do. She says she'll tell them what she's going to do when they come down. It's a stand-off. Cast *Jane Kaczmarek as Lois *Bryan Cranston as Hal *Christopher Masterson as Francis *Justin Berfield as Reese *Erik Per Sullivan as Dewey *Frankie Muniz as Malcolm Guest Stars Recurring *Todd Gieberhain as Richie *Justin Pierce as Justin *Parker Mills as Circus Cameo *Peter Mackenzie as Terry *David Weisenberg as Finance Guy *Stan Sellers as a trade-in customer Trivia *This episode establishes that Lois kept a brochure of an Arizona Work Farm for troubled teens in her drawer as a back up plan just in case Marlin Academy fails to turn Francis around. *Despite being sick and aware that the boys had raided her drawers too many times, she decided to hide the money in the closet. *Shots of the 3 boys sitting on the couch, would later be re-used in the season 6 episode Stilts. Category:Episodes Category:Season 1 Category:Episodes focusing on Hal Category:Episodes focusing on Lois